ASSESSMENT INSTITUTE 2005

Three IU South Bend faculty members, Barbara Peat, Linda Fisher and Naomi Petersen, had a rewarding experience at the 2005 Assessment Institute in Indianapolis last month. Their attendance was sponsored by the IU South Bend Assessment Committee.

Barbara Peat found the pre-Institute workshops especially valuable. The session on Magnet, Mountaintops and Mandates challenged her to reconsider the capstone experience in light of several new models. Materials from this workshop are available from the assessment office . In addition, From Soup to Nuts: Program Review as a Value-Added Assessment Activity demonstrated the important connections between program review and the overall mission of the university, the review process, and the need for those preparing for review to focus on resources, processes, and outcomes.

Dr. Peat also attended Closing the Assessment Loop: An Exploration of How Process Design can Maximize the Enhancement of Academic Outcomes, which provided guidelines for sequencing student development from freshman through senior year as well as a discussion of barriers to assessment and a description of the hierarchy of learning. Deconstructing Assessment: Using Learning Outcomes as a Framework to Build Consensus, Culture, and Accountability focused on development of learning outcomes as they apply to undergraduate education and the answer to three specific questions: 1) why is the outcome important, 2) in what ways do students gain/improve this skill, and 3) how do you assess achievement of this outcome.

Linda Fisher reports that the workshop, Assessing Assessment: Success, Failures, and the Future provided an overview of assessment for the last 20 years. The presenter demonstrated that assessment is now seen as inevitable and legitimate. The vast majority of institutions have statements of learning outcomes and there is growing sophistication in methods of gathering evidence. Common challenges include faculty involvement, lack of leadership support and lack of use of results.

Re-engineering Assessment: Reconsidering our Tools and Practices, proposed a shift in the way assessment is done. The presenter described Project-based assessment (PBA), where the focus is on patterns of practice. PBA begins with a focus on one aspect of student learning and how it will be enhanced through educational experience or learning. It involves projects of limited scope and duration and can be sustained throughout an institution.

Naomi Petersen, despite an exhausting drive, particularly enjoyed the informal interactions with colleges from around the country. She found the collaborative and interactive approach of the sessions engaging. Dr. Kuh of the National Survey of Student Engagement provided information on the NSSE, an instrument now being used at IU South Bend. She was impressed with the wide and growing variety of assessment software and products available from vendors.

Other sessions on the service requirement of coordinating campus-wide assessment procedures, and the disconnect between assessment evidence and policy development demonstrated some of the roadblocks to maximum assessment effectiveness. Dr. Petersen returned from the conference inspired with new ideas for her own research, for the School of Education and for the campus.

The Assessment Institute is always a fantastic event. Put it on your calendar for 2006!